The Toronto Raptors have looked like the best team in the bubble
This season, the Toronto Raptors have shown that they have the heart of a champion. Despite losing Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and knockdown shooter Danny Green to free agency, the Raptors have arguably gotten even better.
After beating the Orlando Magic 109-99, the Raptors are now 3-0 through three games in the NBA’s restart and are looking like one of the most dangerous teams in the entire bubble. Essentially locking up the second seed in the East, this Raptors team is smart and deep looking to bring their beautiful brand into the playoffs and prove that even without Leonard they are a champion-caliber team.
Two big wins against major contenders like the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat show that Toronto is more than up for that challenge. The team has shown that they are just that a team at all times playing as a fist rather than five fingers.
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How have the Toronto Raptors been so dominating?
The heart of the Raptors this season hasn’t been any single player, but the man on the bench. Head coach Nick Nurse has proved this season that he is one of the best head coaches in the league, guiding the Raptors throughout all the team’s various injuries.
Nurse is simply a tactician. He’s a film junkie and a true student of the game and he brings his addiction to basketball to sidelines with the Raptors. Every game the Raptors can come out and play a different style, one that is all based on neutralizing their opponent.
The Raptors are playing the Heat, no problem Nurse plays a versatile lineup where he gets the switching he needs to stop Miami’s motion offense. Suddenly, the Raptors have to matchup against the mega-sized Milwaukee Bucks, Nurse will unleash a jumbo-lineup of his own.
Yes, the versatility of the Toronto roster needs to be accredited to executive Masai Ujiri, but Nurse knows exactly which buttons to push and when to push them in the game against any opponent and that’s an x-factor not all NBA teams have.
It goes beyond just personnel though, Nurse is an X and O’s guy who has already become on the league’s best tacticians on the bench. The Raptors have the second-best defense in the NBA and it goes beyond just a single system.
Toronto has a disciplined veteran roster and Nick Nurse has been able to use a variety of defenses to become one of the league’s best defenses. Against a team like Philadelphia, the Raptors have run 2-3 zone defense to stifle them, then playing the Rockets with isolation star James Harden the Raptors used a box-in-one defense as they did against Stephen Curry in the Finals.
In the Bubble though, the Raptors have been so dominating thanks to their offense. Call it “summertime” not because the Raptors are one of the team’s playing still in August but because Nurse now has the Raptors offense playing like the famous 2014 San Antonio Spurs which Gregg Popovich famously compared to summertime breeze due to strong ball-movement.
In Orlando, Toronto has figured out their offense and played like a complete healthy unit with absolute unselfishness. Key players Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, and Marc Gasol have been primary facilitators. That ball-movement was even seen against the Magic when both Lowry and VanVleet dished out 10 assists.
The team is moving the ball much more than they were during the season with the philosophy that one player may have a shot, but someone else might have a better one. Every player on the court is moving on from their own egos and looking for the best shot.
Another NBA Finals run for the Toronto Raptors?
For Toronto, this incredible offensive reinvention could mean that the Raptors might have an even greater chance of making a second consecutive NBA Finals run. This Raptors team might be lacking the dominant singular star they had last season in Leonard, but in his loss, this team has found something else.
A veteran team that plays as one unit at all times is something truly rare to see in the NBA. It evokes memories of historically great teams, Magic’s Lakers, Bird’s Celtics, the 2004 Pistons, and yes that 2014 Spurs. Toronto is playing basketball as poetry in motion right now.
With all the player movement in the modern NBA, Toronto has an edge over most playoff teams by having chemistry already built to such a high level. Improvements from younger players like Siakam, VanVleet, and Norman Powell combined with veterans like Lowry and Gasol, Toronto is going to be a tough out come playoff time.
This means that another NBA Finals appearance is in the cards for Toronto and it wouldn’t be surprising given their performance over West favorites like the Lakers means that they just might win it all again too.